Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
"Castaways (or Naufragios) is the first major narrative of the exploration of North America by Europeans (1528-1536). It is also an enthralling story of adventure and survival against unimaginable odds. Its author, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, a fortune-seeking sixteenth-century Spanish nobleman, was the treasurer of an expedition to claim for the Spanish Crown a vast area that includes today's Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. A shipwreck forced him and a handful of men to make the long journey to the West coast, where they would meet up with Hernan Cortes, on foot. They endured unspeakable hardships, some of them surviving only by eating the dead. Others, including Cabeza de Vaca joined native peoples he met along the way, learning their languages and practices, and serving them as a slave and later as a physician. When after eight years he finally reached the West, he was not recognized by his compatriots." "Cabeza de Vaca displays great interest in the cultures - so alien to his own - of the native peoples he encountered on his odyssey, observing their customs and belief systems with a degree of sophistication and sensitivity unusual in the conquistador. As he forged intimate bonds with some of them, sharing their brutal living conditions and curing their sick, he found himself on a voyage of self-discovery that was to make his reunion with his fellow Spaniards less joyful than expected." "Cabeza de Vaca's narrative is a marvelously gripping story, but it is also much more. It is a first-hand account of sixteenth-century Spanish colonization, of the encounter between the conquistador and the Native American, of the aspirations and fears of exploration. It is a trove of ethnographic information, its descriptions and interpretations of native peoples' cultures making it a powerful precursor to modern anthropology. And it is a masterpiece of exploration writing, its author keenly aware of the fictive thrust that often energizes the writing of history."--BOOK JACKET.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
Previews available in: English
Subjects
Explorers, Biography, Description and travel, Indians of North America, Spanish, Discovery and exploration, Early accounts to 1600, Nunez cabeza de vaca, alvar, active 16th century, Récits avant 1600, Découverte et exploration espagnoles, Descriptions et voyages, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Historical, HISTORY, Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies), Discoveries in geography, TravelPlaces
America, Southwestern States, SpainShowing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1
Castaways: the narrative of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
1993, University of California Press
in English
0520070623 9780520070622
|
eeee
|
2
Castaway: The Narrative of Alvar Núñez Cageza de Vaca
September 23, 1993, University of California Press
Paperback
in English
0520070631 9780520070639
|
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
First Sentence
"On the seventeenth of June in the year fifteen hundred and twenty-seven, Governor Panfilo de Narvaez sailed from the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda with authority and orders from Your Majesty to conquer and govern the provinces that lie between the river of Las Palmas and the tip of Florida, which are on the mainland."
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?History
- Created April 29, 2008
- 6 revisions
Wikipedia citation
×CloseCopy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?
July 31, 2019 | Edited by MARC Bot | associate edition with work OL2828832W |
August 6, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 16, 2010 | Edited by bgimpertBot | Added goodreads ID. |
April 29, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |